Grah,
I just want to get through the next two weeks.
On my schedule for this week: An ST meeting (Monday), two Amasong dress rehearsals (Tuesday and Thursday), a murder mystery dinner (Wednesday), the last LARP of the school year (Friday), and two Amasong concerts (Saturday and Sunday). Then I have a couple of days off (read, packing and doing last-minute prep) followed by staffing Anime Central. Since
unkajosh is head of the video programming department and strephon and chibirisu are the assistant department heads, we have all the DVDs, organizational stuff, etc to organize and schlep.
This week's plan was harrowing enough, but complicated by the preparations needed for Wednesday's mystery. It's the premiere of my Klondike gold rush script (at long last!) I've finished almost all the props: the bag of gold nuggets and the deck of marked cards are ready, as is the little purple bag for the deck. I have the files ready for the contracts and deeds that need to be printed, and I have the paper. But my costume was a sticking point. I'm playing a dance-hall girl turned saloon owner. I hoped the theater company's costume stock would have something. When I finally got over there yesterday afternoon, I found a couple of good possiblities... good, that is, for an actress 6 or 8 sizes smaller than me.
Next I tried Goodwill, on the theory that some styles of prom or bridesmaid dress would be possible to modify into what I need. But I didn't find anything there either. So today I gave up and went to Dallas & Company, the excellent local costume shop. They had one rental costume that fit: red velvet with black lace trim, low-cut with a rather foofy short skirt. It's not remotely historically accurate but gives the right general impression. The rental staff were very helpful and pleasant. I suspect they were just overjoyed to have a customer during a slow time.
But what I've been writing around is the other reason I'm really stressed and worn out this week. A friend of mine died yesterday morning. She was one of the founders of the murder mystery dinners, a skilled actress, an enthusiastic cheerleader for the theater company, and a dear sweet person. Her death was not unexpected; she'd been battling cancer for a long time and it had been obvious for months that she was slipping. But that didn't mean it wasn't a shock. The visiting hours are tomorrow in the early evening. In the spirit of "the show must go on," the cast of the dinner will go to the funeral home and straight from there to the reindeer ranch (yes, really) where the dinner will be held. It will mean scrambling to change into our costumes on site, but it just seems appropriate. The funeral is Thursday morning; I haven't decided whether I'll go. A number of her theater friends are getting together for dinner that evening, but since I can't skip dress rehearsal I won't be able to go to that.
So if I'm not around my usual internet haunts as much for a couple of weeks, or if I'm a bit grumpy, you know why.
On my schedule for this week: An ST meeting (Monday), two Amasong dress rehearsals (Tuesday and Thursday), a murder mystery dinner (Wednesday), the last LARP of the school year (Friday), and two Amasong concerts (Saturday and Sunday). Then I have a couple of days off (read, packing and doing last-minute prep) followed by staffing Anime Central. Since
unkajosh is head of the video programming department and strephon and chibirisu are the assistant department heads, we have all the DVDs, organizational stuff, etc to organize and schlep.This week's plan was harrowing enough, but complicated by the preparations needed for Wednesday's mystery. It's the premiere of my Klondike gold rush script (at long last!) I've finished almost all the props: the bag of gold nuggets and the deck of marked cards are ready, as is the little purple bag for the deck. I have the files ready for the contracts and deeds that need to be printed, and I have the paper. But my costume was a sticking point. I'm playing a dance-hall girl turned saloon owner. I hoped the theater company's costume stock would have something. When I finally got over there yesterday afternoon, I found a couple of good possiblities... good, that is, for an actress 6 or 8 sizes smaller than me.
Next I tried Goodwill, on the theory that some styles of prom or bridesmaid dress would be possible to modify into what I need. But I didn't find anything there either. So today I gave up and went to Dallas & Company, the excellent local costume shop. They had one rental costume that fit: red velvet with black lace trim, low-cut with a rather foofy short skirt. It's not remotely historically accurate but gives the right general impression. The rental staff were very helpful and pleasant. I suspect they were just overjoyed to have a customer during a slow time.
But what I've been writing around is the other reason I'm really stressed and worn out this week. A friend of mine died yesterday morning. She was one of the founders of the murder mystery dinners, a skilled actress, an enthusiastic cheerleader for the theater company, and a dear sweet person. Her death was not unexpected; she'd been battling cancer for a long time and it had been obvious for months that she was slipping. But that didn't mean it wasn't a shock. The visiting hours are tomorrow in the early evening. In the spirit of "the show must go on," the cast of the dinner will go to the funeral home and straight from there to the reindeer ranch (yes, really) where the dinner will be held. It will mean scrambling to change into our costumes on site, but it just seems appropriate. The funeral is Thursday morning; I haven't decided whether I'll go. A number of her theater friends are getting together for dinner that evening, but since I can't skip dress rehearsal I won't be able to go to that.
So if I'm not around my usual internet haunts as much for a couple of weeks, or if I'm a bit grumpy, you know why.